Jet Community Awards enjoys record number of entries in 2009

Press Release

31 August 2009

Entries for Southern Africa’s premier grassroots awards programme, the annual Jet Community Awards, have more than doubled since last year’s competition, with almost 1000 entries being received from hundreds of community projects and non-profit organisations (NGO's) from South Africa, Botswana, Namibia, Lesotho and Swaziland.

After a four month call-for-entry campaign, the competition closed for nominations at the end of June, and has been followed by an intensive short listing process where an average of 10 – 12 finalists per region will be selected from across all seven of the competition’s regions. All short listed Jet Community Awards candidates are visited by dedicated verification teams from Greater Good SA ahead of the selection process to ensure that each short listed project is both accountable and sustainable.

Now in its seventh year, the Jet Community Awards invites entries annually from citizens of South Africa (made up of the Western Cape, Eastern Cape, KwaZulu-Natal, Gauteng, North West, Limpopo, Mpumalanga, Northern Cape and Free State provinces), Botswana, Namibia, Lesotho and Swaziland, specific to those individuals or organisations that have made a compelling contribution to the wellbeing of their communities. Last year the Western Cape recorded the most entries, while in 2009 the highest number of entries, 158 compared to 27 last year, were received from Limpopo province. This year also saw Swaziland’s entries, which represented the least number of entries last year, grow by 800%.
The Jet Community Awards recognise community projects and grass roots organisations in the four categories of “Education”, honouring organisations and individuals focusing on school-level programmes of excellence in literacy, maths, science and technology; “We Care”, organisations / individuals who focus on a) people with disabilities, specifically in terms of care, support and empowerment, as well as initiatives with people with disabilities (b) Abused women and Orphaned and Vulnerable Children (OVC) specifically affected by the HIV/AIDS epidemic; “Vukuzenzele” which recognises entrepreneurs and development centres that help create jobs and stimulate economic development.  There are three awards within this category – namely awarding black (African, Coloured, Asian) women in business; youths in business (18 – 35) and small business in rural areas; and “Environmental Waste Management”  which recognises organisations / individuals that focus on reducing or eliminating waste production as far as possible so that there is less impact on the environment.
The category that has received the most entries this year is the “We Care” category which has grown 300% since last year with 556 entries, while the “Vukuzenzele” category represents the biggest growth (1000%) across all categories. The “Education” category has also shown a 300% increase from last year while the “Environmental Waste Management” category, which was only introduced in 2008, has almost five times more entries this year with at least one entry being recorded from every region (with the exception of Botswana) compared to last year’s competition which only received environmental entries from four regions in South Africa, including the Western Cape, Gauteng, North West and Mpumalanga.

Since its launch in 2003, the Jet Community Awards has re-invested almost R4 million into needy communities via the prize money to winning organisations. The 2008 Awards distributed more than R1 million in prize money, honouring 36 regional winners, and seven national winners in the process. The seven final winners each received R75 000 cash including R1 000 in Jet shopping vouchers.
Jet Club Manager, Antashia Sassman, believes that over the past seven years the Awards platform has acted as a powerful vehicle for community upliftment. Says Sassman, “As Edcon’s flagship Corporate Social Investment Programme, the Jet Community Awards were created to identify and support community projects from grass roots up. As a family brand committed to making a difference in the lives of individuals, families and society at large, Jet is privileged to be able to contribute to the upliftment of communities by providing vital funding where it is most needed. We are thrilled with the number of entries for the 2009 Awards and look forward to announcing this year’s community heroes from the competitions’ five participating countries.”

This year Jet is giving over R1 million in prize money to 2009's community heroes. The 2009 Jet Community Awards regional finalists will be announced in October.

For more information visit www.jetstores.co.za/Jet/Jet+Cares/

…ends/

Issued on behalf of:  

Jet Club
Contact: Antashia Sassman
Tel: (011) 495 4080
Email: asassman@edcon.co.za

By:        
                                
Soapbox Communications and Events
Inky Dresner
Cell: 083 297 7981
Email: inky@soapbox.co.za